Fierce Friday - 1/11/14

I believe you need to Find your Fierceness, as do I, so I suggest we take just a moment out of doing for others and do something nice for ourselves at least each Friday. 

Tonight I chose to give myself a home Foot treatment.  This works great on ridding the calluses on my Feet. 

Once a week (make it Friday if you like), soak your Feet in a hot-as-you-can-stand-it water bath for at least 20 minutes. I use a dish pan and sit on the couch while I soak.  (Important to remember the towel before you stick your tootsies in the bath.)  It can be plain water or you can add a Fancy-schmancy additive made for Feet.  I find plain water works just as well at softening the calluses. If you can afford a weekly professional treatment, go for it!

Work on one Foot while leaving the other in the water to keep it soft until you are ready for it.  Dry off your foot the best you can and have a go at it with any number of devices out there for debriding the dead skin off the callus. The one I have in the picture is from Bath & Body Works, but I have others I switch between.  All work well.  You may have to put some muscle into it for awhile until the dead cells stop shedding/rolling off your foot.  You will find the debridement less effective the more dry your foot becomes, which is why you need to leave that other Foot in the bath.

When done with the First Foot, you can now repeat on the other.

When done with the last Foot, wipe Clearasil, Stridex, or a similar pad containing salisylic acid across the callused areas.  The pads should have an exfoliating-type surface too.  The salicylic acid helps shed further dead cells.  Follow it up with an application of your favorite moisturizing lotion.  The Nutrix Royal Body by Lancome is my all time favorite EVER! You should moisturize your feet every single night to maintain the new look you will achieve after a few weeks of self treatment.

If you haven't tried this lotion for moisturizing your body in general, you should.   A little bit goes a long way and the tube shown lasts me at least 10 months, even with using it on my feet each and every single night.  Ask for it as a gift if you can't get yourself to buy it at approximately $30/tube.

My skin is very sensitive to moisturizers, yet dry, and I break out easily, but this one is like Heaven to me.  You know that skin you had in your 20s, especially on your legs, that was swapped out involuntarily for that pale, dry skin that is now speckled with hair follicle pores? Yeah--it makes my legs look like it did in my 20s everywhere, including my once-speckled legs. I buy it for gifts and find the recipients adore it and want it as the next Christmas, birthday, or mother's day gift.

(Sorry, this post didn't make it to the blog on Friday.  I went in search of a picture of legs with enlarged follicles to post, but got sidetracked, amazed, and completely creeped out viewing all the skin conditions out there -- especially the follicle mites! Don't do it. Don't look at them or read about them. I'm still itching.)

Reasons #3 and #4 Why I'm Fat -- Water & Pop Consumption

This is installment #3 and includes 2 reasons why I'm fat from my Reasons or Excuses post.

Since it's Water Wednesday reminder time for myself, I will cover that.  Here's a post from the past explaining how and why water consumption is so important, but today I'm talking about how I have avoided accepting that somehow. 

Yup.  It's a reason, not an excuse.  I don't drink enough water and drink way too much pop.  It started when my parents moved me to the country where there was well water when I was about 7.  Stinky well water.  So stinky, I called it Fart water.

I honestly don't know how I survived with all this talk about how important drinking water is for us all.  I can remember moments of feeling I had no choice but to drink it.  It caused me great anxiety and I would hold my breath to get it down, but it was rare.  Since there was no such thing as bottled water, I can only assume I survived through the school years by drinking the city water at the schools I attended.  Summers?  I'm not sure how.  My body must have adapted to sucking every ounce of water it could from anything else I took in.  I'm assuming it was those summer months that brought on a thirst that made me gulp down the occasional glass.

It was the better part of my young and adolescent life that we moved between cities and the boonies with well water.  As soon as I was 18, I moved back to the city, but then I met my now husband who got me back to the country.  By that time, however, we had bottled water in the 1990s.  I bought little jugs of it here and there, but I had already reached the point where I traveled with a pop in my hand or at my side at all times.  I was never without it.  Water is just so boring.

Fast Forward to today, and guess what?  I live in a house with well water AGAIN.  I also spent the last 12 years being a work-at-home mother that called for late nights, and the caffeinated pop helped to combat the resultant fatigue running on 4 hours of sleep brought about throughout the day.  The self-employment/work-at-home status overlaps into a lot of my reasons really.  It may be one of my biggest regrets thus far. 

I buy jugs of water, and the pop habit is a hard one to break.  Food tastes better with it as a side at dinner and I drink it in the morning and all day.  I don't do coffee as I can't stand it.  Judge away I suppose.  I know you're out there.  Doesn't matter really.  It's a lot of calories, and empty calories at that.  I guess I just adjusted to everything that passed my lips having flavor--good flavor.  I KNOW this.  I have to Force myself to drink water.  I can literally go months without ever taking a drink of water, and it doesn't bother me--only my conscience because I know better deep down inside now.

This is an ongoing challenge for me, but it's a battle I know I can ultimately win.  It's a lifestyle change....even a deeply ingrained subconscious habitual or psychological change that I have to bring into my consciousness and keep it there.  

If you would like a recap of some of the other identifiable Factors to my Fatness, here are the previous two so far:

Reason #1:  Sleep Hygiene/Lack Thereof
Reason #2:  Self-Employment/Work-At-Home Status through the Baby Days


Is inadequate water consumption or soda pop intake a part of your problem? Why do you think you substitute pop for water?

Family-Friendly Sloppy Joes - 5 Points

The entire Family likes this one.  My daughter doesn't like the green peppers that go in it, so I'll take a smidge out for her before I add them in.

After the entire sloppy joe Filling is Finished, I divide it up into 8 separate plastic storage containers.  I can't remember how much each serving size is, but I'll note it next time I make it.

I don't know about you, but I don't actually like my sloppy joe to be sloppy, so I don't put the entire serving size onto one bun.  Since the buns are only 1 point for me, I'll divide the entire serving into two and have two sloppy joe sandwiches and add 1 point for the extra bun for 6 points total. Even more filling that way.

Ingredients:

1.5 lb. ground round
1 cup fresh onion
1/2 cup fresh green bell pepper
1 (8-oz) can no-salt-added tomato sauce
1 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon dark-brown sugar
1-1/2 tablespoon low-salt Worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1-1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
8 (1.5-oz) reduced-calorie whole-wheat hamburger buns.


I have no idea why that last line item shows up as "whole-what" but it says "whole-wheat" in my editor feature of the blog. Weird.

Directions:

Coat a nonstick skillet with cooking spray over medium-high heat until hot.  Add beef, onion, and bell pepper until beef is browned and crumbled.  Drain meat in a colander and wipe grease out of pan with paper towel.  Return beef mixture to skillet and add remaining ingredients. Cook over medium heat until slightly thick, about 10 minutes.  Spoon mixture evenly over bottom halves of 8 reduced-calorie whole-wheat hamburger buns.

Yields 8 servings.
Points: 5 Winning Points

Calories 272; Protein 22.1 g; Fat 6.7 g; Carb 30 g; Fiber 2.9 g, Cholesterol 54 mg, Iron 3.2 mg, Sodium 673 mg; Calcium 43 mg

Family Friendly Slow-Cooker Beef and Bean Burritos Recipe - 7 Points

I used to be able to make this and have plenty leftovers for revisits when the Family was having something that didn't fit into my range, but because it's loved, it is now usually a one-nighter.

I've worked hard over the years at trying to find meals that the entire family could enjoy so that I wasn't cooking two meals at once to Fill all the bellies. Today, however, everyone likes the meat, so I only get to have it one more time IF nobody beats me to it. 

Three out of the five of us like the HUGE and Filling burritos, and the other two take the meat worked into quesadillas.  Just don't let them see the meat because they might Freak out about the onions and diced green chiles in it.

Here is the recipe.  I'll include a picture later since I forgot to take one tonight!

1 (2-lb.) top round steak (1.5-2" thick)
1 (1.25-oz.) pkg. taco seasoning
1 c. chopped onion
1 tbsp. white vinegar
1 (4.5-oz) can chopped green chiles

Burrito fixings:

1 (16-oz.) can fat-free refried beans
12 (8-inch) fat-free flour tortillas
1.5 c. (6 oz.) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1.5 c. chopped plum tomato
3/4 c. fat-free sour cream

Trim fat from steak.  Rub taco seasoning on both sides of steak.  Place steak in an electric slow-cooker.  Add onion, vinegar, and green chiles.  Cover and cook on low heat for 9 hours.  (My cooker cooks this up in a couple of hours, so be sure to check on it so you don't wind up eating a rubber tire burrito!)  Remove steak but leave cooking liquid.  Shred steak with two forks & add back into reserved liquid.  Stir well.  Warm beans and tortillas according to package directions.

Spoon 2 Tablespoons of bean down center of tortilla and a heaping 1/3 Cup steak mixture over the beans.  Top each with 2 Tablespoons of cheese, 2 Tablespoons of tomato, and 1 Tablespoon of Fat-Free sour cream.

Yields 12 servings.

Points: 7 Winning Weight Watchers Points.
Calories 350; Protein 24 g; Fat 11.8 g; Carb 31.3 g; Fiber 3.3 g; Cholesterol 49 mg; Iron 4 mg; Sodium 839 mg; Calcium 175 mg.

Forgot!

I forgot to weigh in for my starting over.  I'm going to use the weigh-in I used for the two Diet Bets I joined last week, which was 229.25 (they round up on that site though). EEEEK! That's a huge gain from where I left off prior to trying that anti-depressant for hot flashes. That freakin' sucks.

Grinch Smoothie for 3 Weight Watcher Points

Update 2/10/15:  I'm so excited that I took the time to refigure the points on this smoothie.  Somehow I had marked on the bag of flax meal that the two-tablespoon serving was 4 points. It is NOT! The two-tablespoon serving size is only 1 Freakin' point! It must've been blonde math that made me quadruple the points in my notes/translation rather than divide it into Fourths. At any rate, it's almost an entire two points less than I originally thought! Lately, now that I'm working on improving my cholesterol numbers, I've been adding 1/4 c. of pomegranate juice for 1 point.

***********


Here are the ingredients to make a single serving with a slight banana flavor:

2/3 c.vanilla almond milk (1 point rounded up from .67)
1 oz. banana*
1 c. raw baby spinach loosely packed (0 points)
1/4 c. unpeeled (skin on) green apple (about 1 oz.)*
1/8 avocado (about 1 oz.)* (1 point for the 3 fruits combined)
1/2 rounded Tbs. flax meal (0.25 points per 1/2 Tbs.)
1/2 Tbs. honey (0.5 points)

* I have assigned the three-fruit combo a single point, as it is 0 points individually, but it's fruit! (The old WW Plan has points for fruit. I understand newer points systems have fruits as freebies)

Take all ingredients and blend well.

On my old Weight Watchers plan, this comes out to just over 3 points for me, at 3.25 points.  

Each tablespoon of ground flaxseed contains about 1.8 grams of plant omega-3s, which have been shown to have heart-healthy effects.  Flaxseed contains 75 to 800 times more lignans than other plant foods. Flaxseed contains both the soluble and insoluble types of fiber too.  Research indicates that flax may reduce risks of certain cancers, as well as cardiovascular disease and lung disease. For more on flax, check out this information at WebMD. I also add it to other things where it fits.  They say 2 tablespoons a day offers a healthful heart benefit.

I adapted the above recipe into a single-serving size, but there's no issue with using a whole tablespoon of flax in it either.  Now that I fixed the points on this smoothie, I, as you, can double it up or have it again later in the day should I find myself hungry in between meals. 

Tip:  Freeze ingredients! I put the apple, banana, and avocado on a cookie sheet and freeze them in piles (per smoothie).  I put the spinach into individual bowls/cups and freeze that too! When all four items are frozen, I take one serving of the raw, frozen baby spinach and put it into a Food Saver bag with the pre-portioned, Frozen apple, banana, and apple and then add the flax meal to it too.  This way, all I have to do is cut open a bag, plop it into the Blender, add the almond milk and the honey, blend, and voila!

Friendship, Facebook, Fat Fashion, Frumpy, and Hurt Feelings

Soo, I guess the beginning of 2014 is as good a time as any to share something I won't long forget, if ever.

While spending years' worth of my days hiding away from outsiders, especially those who knew me in my heyday, I had finally come to a place to work up the nerve to Force myself to get back out there when reconnecting with those long-lost Friends via Facebook a couple of years back---only to Figure out it was somewhat justified I guess. Don't get me wrong, it was mostly easy to do, as we moved hours away from our Friends and Families just as I had my First baby, and not knowing anyone in this town and working from home, made "hiding" easy.  It didn't matter who saw me out here because they didn't know me, but I've never met anyone out here to go out in public with either.

I had turned down too many invitations in the past from old classmates, so I Figured that I should just suck up my discomfort at getting out there and being seen in my current state and get it over with....or I was running out of actual legitimate excuses to do so once my hubby started working normal hours with weekends off and my business was winding down.  I think it was a combination of both.

With my joining of Facebook, many Friends nearing their Forties were also discovering reconnecting with the long-lost adored ones from our pasts at nearly the same time. So there we all were.  It was very exciting.  I got to reminisce with some, joke around with others, defend myself from spouses who thought that my responses to their husband's messages was me hitting on their husbands, etc.

To the defensive wives all I could think was, "You wouldn't feel that way if you could see me.", and I thought the same thing to the male Friends lavishing uncomfortable compliments and past unshared feelings with me in chats.


I reconnected with a Few long-lost but Found-on-Facebook friends in the real world via a few outings.  Two of those friends had a Falling out.  I tried to stay as objective as possible between the two, considering.  Suddenly, one of the two tells me that the other said some not-so-Flattering things about me.  Yes, they were mad at each other, and that had a little something to do with the Fact that Friend #2 blurted out that Friend #1 said I was FRUMPY and that all I do is complain about being overweight and yet do nothing about it. 

I wondered for only a brief second whether or not it was true because it didn't really matter if they said it if it was the truth.  If it was False, then that would mean that Friend #2 made it up but knew just how to take a jab at me.  I'm pretty sure it was said, however.

O-U-C-H.

It stung.  I shed a couple of tears.  The truth, which starts with a T, hurts.  I hadn't seen either of these Friends in 20 years.  I really didn't know what to make of everything I was hearing regarding the actual disagreement.  That Fact may have bothered one or both of them.

It is False that all I do is complain about being Fat.  What I complain about is not being able to Fix it and not all the time either--more of a Frustration really about all the directions I'm pulled.  There is a difference to me.  I never give up on trying.

The Fact is that I am FRUMPY because I have refused to buy myself, what I call, Fat clothes.  I have, therefore, only received some truly Frumpy clothing gifts from my mother who wishes I would get out of my sweats and leisure-work-out-style wear.  It's nothing I'd buy for myself, but I don't know how to buy for myself at this size because everything looks horrible to me. 

I realize that I would look Frumpy in anything I wore, so that adjective tends to hit a little more personal than it being just a reference to my clothing.

Anybody else ever hear something said about their looks that hurts at 40?